Not sure this is the right career for me

Learn to keep goals look for something you want achieve keep ur mind going or it will eat you up and you will quit

 

Gotta find new hobbies. Get a CB and talk trash to other drivers. Thats a major hobby in the truck stops.

 

LOL that's pretty much the only hobby one can have when living out of a truck.

 

Time for Hobbys....hmmm

I came off the road in Feb and got a local gig, still 6 days a week, still maxing my hours every week and needing a reset to work at all on Monday morning. So, home every day and less time for my hobbys than I had when I was OTR.

 

I couldn't deal with OTR, So I went Local so that I can be home everyday..

I wouldn't say I am completely anti-social but I am not a very sociable person either... I like to go out from time to time and lead a somewhat normal life with after work chores and activities... I thought I would be able to handle constantly being gone because I didn't care if I went out or not and I figured I was going to be gone only 5 (maybe 6) days a week that I would be ok but really I wasn't. Like you I missed home, I missed my family and I missed being social even tho I am not a sure big social person... Just something that naturally happened to me when went OTR...

I didn't like that when I was done for the day, that I was stuck in the truck in some town that I knew no one. I felt completely alone. The only times I enjoyed it was A) when I met up with my family members in Ohio when I was near Akron, it wasn't my home, but it was close enough and gave me a warm feeling B) when I met up with other drivers from the same company at the usual truck tops we would go to (mostly back in Canada)...

I really wish I could have hacked it... I did enjoy seeing all different areas of the states I went to cause let face it, being a driver you will probably see more places in your life then anyone in the world (if your OTR).. Even if your not in the area long you can still say you visited that area.. That was the part I enjoyed.. Meeting new people and getting to know people who would be frequent faces at pickups and drop-offs.. I just couldn't get over the loneliness tho.. Def spend more time alone then you do surrounded by people... Unless you a truck stop junkie and sociable person who can spark conversation with anyone.. I was more of the get to my drop off and spend the night there, then go to my backhaul and drive as far as I could ... So I mostly spend my non-working times at the shippers/receivers or a rest stop...

Try it out solo for a bit and see how you like it.. If you don't like it then try to apply for a local gig if you enjoy the job itself... Even if you want to get home everyday you can try for a job that you work longer hours but are still home everyday... I live so close to the US border that I wouldn't mind doing local runs from Canada to the US that I would get home everyday.. Even 2 day runs could be an alternate, I used to work for a company where I would go from Toronto to Ohio and then the next day would do Michigan (backhauls) to Toronto.. So basically I'd leave Monday back Tuesday (go home), Then Wednesday to Thursday (go home, and even make it to my bowling) then Friday's I would just do like short runs.. Then off for the weekend... That drained me eventually as well, but it was so much better then being gone from home for 5-6 straight days...

Whatever you do I wish you the best of luck.

 

I too am fairly new and have wondered the same as you. Is this career for me? The difference, I am in my 40's and switching from another career to driving. No way I could do OTR. Family and enjoy home time too much, so I went LTL. Started in P&D for about 6 to 8 weeks then jumped at a line driver position in the company. So far so good. They threw me on a set of double the first night and sent me down the road. Talk about scary. But now 8 months into it I am hooked. In fact I had contemplated going back to to my old career just this week. Gave my notice and accepted another job but before I was even out of the truck I felt like I was missing it. So I decided to stay.

Best advice, because this is what everyone has told me as well, give it a year. Like I said I could not do OTR so go local. Line driving is nice because it is no touch freight and home every night. I drop and hook and the pay is descent. I rarely work a full 8hrs with my route and am making about what I was in my old career where I was working 45 to 50 hours a week and had been doing it for 10 plus years.

 

I thought about taking up cb as my hobby... Though I'd be pretending to be a Lizzie and send an interested party to an unsuspecting rig...

Probably get my ### handed to me if someone figured that out though.

As for the Op, sometimes you might have the right career but the wrong company. I'm beginning to think that's the case for me.

 

Do that plus use a laser pointer across the eyes of some trucker just sitting there minding his own business. Then listen to him trash talk about how he's going to kill whoever is pointing the laser at him.

 

That's fun; get a voice synthesizer that changes your voice. They're on google.

Something else that's fun is the remote controlled "fart machine." Looks like a cell phone. Lay it under your hat or napkin on the table, then go to the salad bar and hit the button every time a waitress walks by your table.

Those sonic guns are fun too. Some driver standing there flirting with the fuel desk girl, holding up the line. Ease the barrel from under your coat and shoot him; he slams both hands over his ears and starts doing a crazy dance and yelling due to the horrible screeching in his ears that no one can hear except him. They're on google also.

 

Why waste the money when you can impersonate one?

...I used to do voice impersonations at parties. It was a blast come Halloween.